I don’t write as many blog posts as I used to, but I figure this was a good excuse for me to write out something.

2017 has been an exciting year for me on YouTube and Twitch. I’ve “met” (online) a lot of really interesting and cool people, and have learned quite a bit! I’m excited for 2018, and have a lot of ideas floating through my head that I just need to put into a sequence of events and execute them. Of course, it’s a lot of random stuff, like you’d expect, but some of the things I have in mind are………….

CPU Resuscitation project – seeing if we can bring a Ryzen 5 1600x back to life from the bent pin graveyard!

Make A Test Bench The Brute Force Way – seeing if I can convert a case by magical (or mechanical, more accurately) means into a suitable test bench on the cheap!

The BioHazard Sandy Bridge build – can a Chinese knockoff motherboard power up a good workstation PC with an i7-3820??

Retro-Rescue: Atari 2600 Paddle Jitter – how to make those old-school paddle games smooooooth once again!

Xeon and on and on! – Let’s try a build using a monster Xeon CPU and find out what all it can really do!

That’s a very high-level summary of things I’d like to get done this year, along with a spring project where we go around the local area and compare how things look now with how they looked 25 years ago! Yes………I actually did do a videotape that long ago and didn’t record over it! How did that happen?

I do hope you all stick around, subscribe to my channel, and share the randomness around with anyone who’s interested! See you all out there!

I got myself bit by the upgrade bug this year, as I was not satisfied with how my computer was running games I wanted to play, so I did what comes naturally……well, in a nerd sense – I built a new computer from the ground up. Yes…… this is what I built.

Now keep in mind the timeframe here…….this was right near the Ryzen launch, so while I could have jumped on the AMD bandwagon right then, I didn’t, as I didn’t quite trust the new platform yet. I went with something that had a mature platform and had lots of use. I am quite happy with this setup, but now I’m looking into little tweaks and bling upgrades to make it even nicer – like gong from a 240mm cooler to a 280 with a sweet water block. This is equal parts form and function, so it’ll be worth it.

The one thing I stayed away from was RED. Not red like AMD, but just the color. Egads, is that color played into the ground like Kokomo was on the radio in the 80’s! Seriously? I don’t get the whole fascination with this angry color, but hey……to each their own, I guess. Eventually, I plan on a nice light blue Tron-style theme. It’ll get there eventually.

Now that Ryzen has been out a while, it is a nice series of processors, but for gaming, I still like my choice. Is it as smooth? Most of the time no, but my tolerance for it is higher than a lot of people. Heck…..consoles get more hitches and stutters than this! I saw the Skylake-X launch and thought “That’s nice for those who need it. ” – same with Threadripper.

With Coffee Lake coming out, I’m thinking that they should have done this instead of Skylake-X, as it’s more for the mainstream user, but I understand why they did it. Does this mean I’m just dying for Coffee Lake?

No. Why? I have a nice, working computer now, and it does what I want. Besides……not every user can jump in and upgrade when the new shiny thing comes out. Heck…..people are still rocking computers much older than this, and are perfectly happy. So…..when you see the new thing come out on the market, ask yourself this one question……..

Is it something you need……or just something you want? Don’t forget to take care of your necessary expenses in life first though! It does no good to have a beast of a computer if you have no place to live.

It seems things that used to be commonplace last generation are forgotten relics these days – simple things like manners and common courtesy are strangely absent in the society landscape at this point. I drive from point A to point B, and there will always be some example of humanity driving like a baboon, jerking from lane to lane, cutting off anyone who gets in their way.

You walk through a supermarket, and rather than letting people out of a side aisle, they form this gridlock line and heaven help you if you try to get out – you’ll be stuck there a while.

People these days even form message boards and groups just for the sole purpose of how some person or some company sucks and should be done away with!

It’s sad! It’s almost getting to the point where I don’t hardly want to go out anymore because I don’t want to run into another person who thinks the world revolves around them, and that everyone else is a lesser human being.

If you go to a restaurant and have an issue with the food, they look shocked if you’re polite! That should be expected! I can see people getting frustrated from time to time, but when your first response is to want to knock someone on their can, I just can’t respect that. We should have come farther as a people than this, yet we still just can’t play nice in the sandbox.

Lately, I’ve started up a new series on my channel called “Random Game Reviews”. I started this by looking for interesting games on Steam for cheap, and then letting people know what I think of them, along with a rating system that has been taking shape. I usually rate them 2 thumbs up, 1 thumb up, mixed, 1 thumb down, or 2 thumbs down.

Most recently, I’ve started getting even more random with it! It started with a free game I won in a giveaway by Tech Deals, who does a really cool channel about technology, game performance, and how to get the most bang for your buck. The best part is that it’s very clearly done, plus it’s family friendly, which is great, because I don’t want to have my kids watch tech videos learning about computers that are filled with cursing.

After I reviewed that game and put it up, I received another one, as he enjoyed that video, so I did one for that one too! I’ve started getting my kids involved with it too, as they enjoy making videos with me. It’s been a lot of fun, and it gives us something to do on the weekends. I appreciate the games that have been sent to me by Tech Deals a lot, and he has a fun sense of humor.

I think this will be an ongoing series, no matter where the games come from, so I hope people enjoy watching them!

If you want to see great tech videos about computers and performance, just check out his channel here! (Tech Deals YouTube channel).